The present invention relates generally to a dental syringe and more particularly to such a syringe wherein the valves controlling the flow of a fluid medium, such as air, water or an air-water spray are located remote from the syringe.
A dental syringe is an instrument well known in the art. Such an instrument is merely the hand held terminus of various fluid supply lines and is used by the dentist to direct a stream of air, water, or an air-water spray to the tooth. Normally, such an instrument incorporates the various valves for controlling the flow of the medium through the syringe. The usual case is to provide at least two valves within the syringe and then to have a separate operating mechanism attached to each of the valves. In this way, the operator can use one of the mechanisms to select and control the flow of air, use the second mechanism to initiate and control the flow of water and use both mechanisms simultaneously to obtain an air-water spray. Typical of such devices are those illustrated, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,401,691, 3,511,235 and 3,593,423.
In the present invention, the syringe is provided with a single operating means for controlling the flow of either air, water or selecting a spray. The single means not only selects the particular fluid medium desired, but also the rate of flow. In the present invention, the valves for controlling flow are located remote from the hand held syringe and are electrically connected to the flow control means within the syringe. In this fashion, the overall size of the syringe is greatly reduced, which facilitates the manual manipulation of the syringe and also allows the syringe to have a more pleasing and aesthetic appearance.